


Wounds

by delen2000



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Coulson doesn't get it, Coulson gets hurt, F/M, May gets it, Resolved Sexual Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, urequited love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-10
Updated: 2014-12-10
Packaged: 2018-02-28 21:25:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2747654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delen2000/pseuds/delen2000
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Coulson is injured and Skye doesn't know what to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wounds

“Coulson!” Skye yelled. “Coulson, you’d better answer me!” Skye trained her gun on the still form of the Hydra agent she had just shot, and chanced a look over her shoulder where Coulson had been thrown mightily and hard into a wall. She was sure she’d heard a moan and a crunch and then silence, which was terrifying her. “Coulson!” She added more force to it and blew some hair out of her face out of exasperation. She stalked around the body to give herself a clear view of the exit, Coulson’s still, crumpled form beside the wall, and the neck of the Hydra agent, so that she could check their pulse. None. She holstered her weapon and hurried over to Coulson’s side. “Phil!” She was almost screeching now, just short of a shriek.

She crouched down next to his head and quickly reached into his collar to search out his pulse. She couldn’t look at him, tried so hard to detach, and remembered everything that May had taught her about calm, taking slow measured breaths. She found that he did have a weak pulse and that he was indeed breathing. Very calmly, she hit her COM, “May, Coulson was injured, I need you in here ASAP, and bring Simmons.” Numbly, she fell to the ground beside his body and sat helpless waiting for them to appear in the doorway. 

It didn’t take long for May to show, she was running fast into the room, showing far less calm then Skye was, with Simmons and the rest hot on her heels.

“He threw him hard into the wall, and I heard a crunch and then he didn’t move. I shot the guy over there,” She pointed to the HYDRA guy lying motionless in the corner. “And then I came over here to check out Coulson. He’s got a pulse and he’s breathing, but we can’t move him or touch him with out Simmons, because I don’t know what is broken.” Skye reported to May, who had crouched down beside her. Simmons went to the other side and began to examine him carefully. 

“I can’t be sure about what exactly is broken without x-rays, but it seems like he has a couple of broken ribs and a broken wrist. He also has a large contusion on his head, which has knocked him out cold. I can’t be sure about his spine, so we will need to make sure his neck and back remain immobile till I can make sure he is fine.” Simmons said after a moment. May nodded and got up to go find something to use as a temporary board to carry him into the bus. 

“He’ll be ok, won’t he Jemma?” Skye asked in a broken voice, not looking at her or Coulson.

“I’m not sure, at this point, but if all that is wrong with him is what I have so far found, then he’ll be fine. If he has more injuries, then I can’t be sure.” Jemma tried to be truthful yet comforting.

Skye simply nodded, eyes dead.

________________________________________

Skye wondered what was wrong with her. 

She was in turmoil over Coulson, desperate about his situation. Once they got him back on the bus and Simmons was able to run tests and x-rays, she made herself leave the med bay because she was getting way too upset. It was Coulson, and she should be upset, but this was going even farther than what she had been feeling after she found him in Rania’s machine. What was wrong with her?

May came out after awhile. “Hey, are you ok?” May actually looked concerned, which made Skye feel all the worse.

“I…I don’t know what is wrong with me! It’s like I’m feeling way too much for the situation. Coulson is fine! It’s just a broken wrist and a couple of cracked ribs, and a concussion. He’s even awake and talking now, so I don’t know why it feels like my whole world is falling apart!” She choked and turned away from May, trying to hide the tears and upset from the other woman.

May put a hand on Skye’s shoulder and waited for her to calm a little. After a while Skye, turned back around to face May.

“I think you should go in there and talk to Coulson, it would make you feel better.” May said kindly.

“I can’t go in there like this! He’s been through enough today without having me fall completely apart on him.” Skye scoffed.

“Oh, I think he’ll be fine with it. He was wondering where you had gone off to, if you were alright, he couldn’t stop talking about you and how well you handled yourself until he got in the way.”

“He got in the way?” Skye questioned.

“He said that when the guy headed toward you, he tried to distract him, and got thrown clear across the room for his trouble.”

Skye thought about it, and the way it went down, wasn’t exactly how she’d seen it, more like he’d been trying to get her out of trouble, not that he’d thrown himself into the fray.

“Just go to him.” May advised and then pushed her shoulder to turn her around to face the hallway in the direction of his room. Skye sighed, squared her shoulders and walked toward the Med Bay. May sighed and shook her head.

______________________________________________

It was way more awkward then it needed to be.

She walked in and hung back against the wall, trying to keep calm. The first thing she noticed is that he was sitting up and smiling at her, obviously glad to see her. It did a lot to calm her down actually, right up until a warm, tingly feeling stole over her at that smile and the fact that he was more than ok.

Oh no.

No.

No. No. No. No. No.

Awareness of just why she was losing her mind shifted into place and she was stunned for a moment and quickly schooled her face blank and folded her arms over her chest, which clearly took Coulson aback and a bewildered look came over his face.

“Are you alright, Skye?” He asked warily.

“Yeah,” she nodded and looked down at her feet, shifting them about and settled looking back up at him, but not really. “Yeah. I’m fine.” She aimed for distracted and uninterested and apparently nailed it because Coulson began to look decidedly more unsure at her attitude. 

He had a large bandage over his head where he had a large goose egg from hitting the wall, his left eye was completely black and blue, and bloodshot. The left wrist was bandaged up and placed in a sling that he had placed close to his chest. His right arm was hanging down by his right leg. His posture was open and inviting, he even wasn’t lying back on the pillows but leaning foreword, towards her. Usually, by now, she would have enveloped him in a hug and participated in some lighthearted banter about him watching where he was going, or something to make him smile. She didn’t know how to do that right now though. She didn’t know how to do anything right now, except do everything in her power to have him not figure out what was really up with her. 

A few minutes of silence went by, and she saw the moment he gave up. A look of hurt crossed his face and he relaxed against the pillows, drawing his right arm up by his hurt one in a protective gesture. It almost killed her.

“Are you mad at me?” He asked, sure that she must be, his face resigned to her answer.

“Why would I be mad at you?” Her voice was dead, and so were her eyes. He couldn’t look at her any more.

“Because I made myself a liability. Because I didn’t trust you to handle it and I ran in there and almost got myself killed, and left you to deal with twice as many problems. I risked your life and mine, instead of letting you handle it.” He sounded so sad.

“No, I’m not mad at you.” Far from it. “What I remember is he was coming after me, and I didn’t have the shot and you went in to distract him and it didn’t work the way you thought it was going to. That’s what I remember.” She let one hand drift down to his foot, and she touched it lightly and turned to leave.

“I’m going to let you get some rest. I need to prepare to debrief the team.” And with that she was gone.

Thoroughly confused, he sat there a minute, when May breezed in and disturbed his thoughts.

“You have no idea what is going on, do you?” May asked confidently.

Coulson looked at May closely to see if he could discern what she was talking about from her face, but he knew better, it was May after all.

“What is up with her? Is she mad at me, or hurt or something?”

“Oh, definitely something.”

Exasperated, Coulson leaned back further, and attempted to cross his arms, just managing it with the sling. 

“I don’t suppose I can just get you to come out with it.”

“What would be the fun in that?”

“May!”

“Phil.”

He just stopped himself from rolling his eyes at her and watched her come closer to his bedside.

“Why would you think she was mad or sad? Was she acting that way?” May asked with a knowing look on her face.

Coulson thought for a minute. “No, actually, she acted closed off like she didn’t want me to know what was going on.” He thought a little harder about it. “If she wasn’t mad about what happened, or sad that I was hurt, was she embarrassed and that’s why she was hiding her emotions?”

May sat down at the foot of his bed and looked at him. “Why would she be embarrassed?” 

“I don’t know. She’s hugged me many times, and she wouldn’t hug me today. I was kind of disappointed, she gives the best hugs and I could have used one today.” Coulson said with some depreciation. “I don’t think she’d be embarrassed to hug me.”

“Unless…” May fed him rolling her hand to spurn him on.

“Unless…” Coulson breathed out, concentrating and suddenly sat up and sputtered at May. “Y-Y-Y-You d-d-d-don’t mean that she…” He pointed wordlessly towards the door Skye had went through. May just stared at him. “But she’s never given any indication, she’s never even hinted that she could feel that way!”

May shook her head. “She didn’t know herself until she figured it out about five minutes ago, in this room, talking to you.”

His jaw dropped and he couldn’t find any words.

“What am I going to do May?”

“Well, you either tell her you feel the same way and start having some fun, or you tell her you don’t and have a rocky and uncomfortable working relationship.”

“Thanks, that’s real helpful.” Coulson spat at her.

“It’s truthful.” May answered back. “I am guessing by your tone that you will be going for rocky and uncomfortable?”

“I am not in love with her May, and leading her on and giving her hope seems like an awful thing to do to her.” Coulson began fiddling with his bed sheets.

“Just be sure, before you tell her, what you really feel and what you want to tell her, because knowing Skye, she is never going to tell you, never. You could just leave it at that.” May got up and started heading for the door.

“I know I don’t want it like it was just now.” He said softly.

“I don’t think you know what you want.” May said dismissively as she headed back up to the cockpit.

_____________________________

A few days had gone by and Coulson was allowed back in his own quarters again. Skye hadn’t come to see him once. He had to concede that May was probably right about her feelings. Nothing else would make her avoid him like this. Even when he was purposely pushing her to observe her, she wouldn’t leave him alone. Now, he was alone, and he didn’t like it. He had become used to her in his office and hanging out when he needed someone to cheer him up. When he needed someone to understand what he was going through, as only Skye could do. Whether it was growing up without a father, or the GH-325, Skye understood him like no other, not even May. She might be even closer to him then May was. He sighed. He’d been back and forth about this a hundred times. On one hand, if he ignored it, Skye would probably get a grip on it and eventually come around, or she could have really deep feelings that she can’t get a handle of, and need to leave the team. On the other, if he confronts her and tells her that he doesn’t feel that way and never could, it could crush her and ruin whatever they have for good. There just was no happy answer to this dilemma.

A knock sounded on the door and his mouth went dry. He’d asked her to come by.

“Come in.” He said softly and hoped his nervousness didn’t show through.

Skye came in and softly closed the door, looking like she wanted to be anywhere but there. She couldn’t look him in the eye, and he realized that this really hadn’t gotten any better. He also realized that he hadn’t figured out what to say, either.

“You wanted to see me, sir?”

“Yes, have a seat.”

Falling back on manners and protocol seemed to be a safe bet at the moment. She sat in a chair and he sat on the couch across from her chair and they stared at each other for a while. Well, he stared at her and she stared at the door, like she desperately wanted to be on the other side of the door.

“What did you want to talk to me about, sir.” 

He kinda shook himself mentally and then tried to man up and tell her. 

“I don’t know what to say right now, because this has never happened to me before, but I feel I need to just come out with the truth because you deserve that.” Coulson finally started the conversation. She moved her gaze from the door to her fingernails that were pushing and rolling on the armrest, picking up lint and rolling it around. He sighed. “I don’t think I can be what you want.” She froze. Coulson was a little shocked, because she totally froze, no breathing, blinking, moving, nothing. 

A moment went by. “What do you mean?” She asked softly.

He struggled. He really did, because he suddenly knew his worst fears were going to happen. She was going to leave the team and he was never going to see her again and his soul just felt crushed. He had started this now, and he couldn’t undo it. “I can’t love you the way you want to be loved by me.” He admitted softly.

Her eyes closed and her cheeks flamed. He felt horrible. He wanted to grab her hands, or crush her in a hug, but he stayed firm. 

A moment passed. “Ok.” Skye started to get up and he knew this was it. She was leaving. He quickly stood too, and faster than either of them thought he would be one handed, he managed to block her exit and grab her by the waist. 

“Skye.” She tried to wrench out of his grasp without hurting him further. “Skye. Stop. Please don’t go.” He tried to calm her down. Somehow, they wound up twisted around with his arm around her waist and her back to his front, and his chin on top of her head. He felt, more than heard her, start to sob. 

“You weren’t supposed to find out.” Her voice sounded so broken, and haunting. “You weren’t supposed to find out.” She whispered as she bowed up and effectively curled into his body more.

“I don’t want to lose you, Skye. Promise me you’ll stay?” He whispered into her hair, and knew he was killing her by asking, but couldn’t stop himself. 

She whimpered and moaned, trying to get the words out, and something just clicked in Coulson’s mind. How much he didn’t want her to go, how much he would miss her, the heartache he was already feeling and she hadn’t even left his arms yet, the smell of her hair and the feel of her body under his. Suddenly his whole world shrank to the size of a pin…and then exploded out.

Oh, no.

No.

No. No. No. No. –wait!

He spun her around quickly, and ignoring the messy crying jag she was on, grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed her soundly on the mouth.

For the second time that night, Skye froze.

And then she melted into his arms, pressed herself into his body.

He broke the kiss and pressed his forehead to hers, breathing heavily. “I didn’t know Skye, I didn’t know.” He kept saying over and over, not letting her go. He felt her hands thrust themselves into the hair above his neck and pull him back to her lips, where he felt like she was trying to swallow him whole. Her feelings ran deep and being Skye, she didn’t hide them well, and he felt everything she felt for him in that kiss. He staggered under it, the emotions swamping him; overwhelming him, and then he kissed back and for once let himself go in the moment and gave her everything. Before he knew it, he had her braced against the wall of his room, her legs around his waist, crossed behind his back. Her shirt was hiked up over her bra and her bra was following the shirt. She had his t-shirt pulled all the way up his back to his shoulders, and she was tracing patterns all over. The sweat pants he was wearing did nothing to hide his erection, nor could Skye be unaware of it, since he was thrusting it against her, and hitting some good spots if the noises she was making were any kind of judge. He felt like this was going too fast and too slow all at the same time. It was too much and not enough. He was crazy and the sanest he’s ever been. 

He spun her away from the wall and carried her to the bed, lying her down on the bed. He was now trying to get her pants off of her with limited use of his arm, which is the same reason he was wearing sweat pants and a t-shirt. She realized his dilemma quickly and raised her hips pushing them down her hips and wiggling, as he pulled them down the rest of the way, and took her shoes off with them. When he returned his attention back to her, she was pushing her panties down also, and he also pulled those off, while she sat up and took off her shirt and bra. As much as he’d wanted to take those articles of clothing off of her himself, he recognized that this at least avoided any future awkward moments he was sure to have in removing them. 

He kicked off his sneakers and crawled up one armed (bless you one armed push-ups) between her legs and up her body. He had reached her mouth and barely got settled when he felt her pushing his pants along with his underwear down his hips and used her feet to keep them going down his legs, while she switched directions with her hands, running them up his bare skin, over his butt and up his back, pushing his shirt up with it. She kept going until the shirt was up to his shoulders and quicker then he realized had it over his head and pulled it gently off down his arms. He immediately pressed his body into hers and kicked his pants off the rest of the way. 

He lost track of who was kissing whom, and who was on top at any given moment, because neither of them was content to be the one who just sat back and enjoyed. They both wanted to give to the other. 

It was fast and it was slow. Time seemed to speed up and drag. Certain things he was sure he’d never forget, like the way her tongue felt when it went along the shell of his ear. He’d thought his skin had risen up over his body with how it reacted, immediately raising goose bumps everywhere and leaving this tingling sensation all over his body. Some things he wished he’d committed more to memory, like the feel of her skin at the small of her back, the noise she’d made when he touched that spot.

They lay in the aftermath, trying to catch their breath and holding onto one another.  
Coulson suddenly started to laugh at himself. Skye looked at him in bewilderment at first and then smiled, waiting for the joke.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” He choked out, passed a hand over his face and then touched her face softly. “It’s just that, when I asked you here today, this was the last thing I thought was going to happen.”

She allowed his hand to comfort her and sank into his touch, but didn’t say anything.

“I love you.” He said suddenly. “I can’t figure out why I didn’t see it before. It feels so strong right now, I can’t imagine how I didn’t feel it and know.” 

“I know how that is. You got hurt and weren’t moving and I kinda lost it, and it just felt so surreal, like why can’t I calm down? Why am I blowing this way out of proportion? And then I saw that you were sitting up and smiling and I felt such a feeling of relief that that felt way out of proportion as well, and then it hit me, that I Ioved you, unconditionally, overwhelmingly and I didn’t know what to do with that. You had never even indicated any real interest, so I just was giving it time to sorta die out, but it just got stronger.” Skye explained. “I was running out of ideas on how to handle it.” 

“I was pretty sure that if I let you walk out of this room, that that would be the last time I ever saw you again, and it hit me that I couldn’t handle that. May left and I missed her and wanted her back, and sure I was angry, but that didn’t feel like this…desperate and crushed and I had to make sure you didn’t leave me, and I knew.” Coulson looked at her in wonder. “I knew.”

______________________________________

They fell into a certain routine. She moved all of her belongings into his room. Although it was bigger because he was the director, it was still only built with one person in mind. Stereotypes were thrown out the window in their case, since Coulson was the clothes hog and Skye was way more economical with her belongings. After having lived in a van, and being homeless, she tended to travel light and only buy what she really needed. When Skye couldn’t fit her meager belongings in amongst his things, Coulson conceded that it might be time to pare down some of his things and rearrange a bit. Some of his stuff went into his office, and some went into an unused storage room. 

Work was a little trickier. They couldn’t not work together. So they told the whole team what was up and devised a sort of formula so that they were not left in a situation where it would compromise an op. 

They worked together everyday and came back to their room every night and they fought, and laughed and cried.

Weeks rolled into months which turned into years. Still chasing HYDRA ghosts, still chasing Grant Ward, some things never seem to render much change. Until the day that Skye didn’t show up for work. 

Coulson looked for her all day and the only person who knew anything was May, who of course wouldn’t say anything to him. He came back to the bedroom late at night only to find her sitting there staring into space, holding a file.

“Skye?” He said softly. He came closer in the dark room, illuminated only by his bedside light. Hers was off. He saw she was crying. Those made him come to her side quickly. He stopped when his shoes hit the tips of hers and ran a hand through her hair. “Where have you been? I’ve looked for you all day.” 

She looked up at him and thrust the folder at him. He took it and sat next to her on the bed. Trepidation filed him as he could clearly see it was a medical file. Her name and the date were written on the tab. She’d used his last name. He didn’t mind. 

“I was going to ask you to go along to the doctor, but I wasn’t sure, so I snuck out and made my appointment. I wanted to be sure before I told you.” She gestured to the file and made like he should open it, then wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

He hesitated for a moment, hand hovering over the cover, and then turned it quickly, revealing a picture paper clipped to the tests that lay under it. It was an ultrasound. He held his breath.

“You’re going to be a daddy.” 

His mouth opened partially, no words escaped and he looked harder at the image and then looked at Skye. Skye was reminded of the look he gave her right after they landed in Lola after escaping from Ward and Deathlock all those years ago. She giggled through her tears and started to nod her head in the affirmative. He reached for her, and she welcomed him, even as she could tell the shock hadn’t quite worked its way through. He went and pushed away from her and began pouring through the document, even though it was getting all blurry and nothing was making sense, and then flipped back to the ultrasound. He touched it with wonder. “Daddy?” He whispered to the picture. He looked at Skye, who reached out to wipe the tears he didn’t know were falling down his face. “I’m going to be a dad?” He snuffled right then and she nodded her head again. He suddenly got up and ran to the door, through the office and out to the hallway. Skye could hear him shouting, “I’m going to be a dad!” Out into the base, and hear the people clapping for them. She was laughing through her tears.

____________________________________

She had often said that she wished that she had let Deathlock end Grant Ward that day on the bus, but rarely has she actually meant it fully. What she really means is that she hopes he runs into traffic at the wrong time or that someone would shoot him when he crossed the line. In all truth, he kidnapped her, but he didn’t hurt her, and killing him at that moment wouldn’t have helped Mike at all, and it wouldn’t have gotten her off the bus any sooner. She’s glad she let him live, even when he made their lives a living hell. Like right now. Right now she’s hoping for a time machine to go back and not stop Deathlock. She wants that really badly right now. Well, that and not to be hiding in this room away from everybody. And an epidural, she really, really wants an epidural right now.

The rest of the team was off chasing after a ghost and had left her very pregnant self behind to manage the op from the place they had rented in town near the op. She hadn’t been directly in the field since she found out she was pregnant for obvious reasons. Coulson would have a heart attack if something happened to them, plus objectivity went clear out the window when it came to him and her lately, so she ran the ops. Designed them, researched them, and deployed them. She kept tabs on everybody through the coms and it was working well, till somebody sensed a pattern. 

Until today, they didn’t know that Ward had been keeping tabs on them and monitoring her movements, except that for the past eight months, she hadn’t been running ops, or leaving base or anything. And of course, since he was fixated on her as always, he definitely started to wonder where she was and what was up. Which is how the team got the bogus intel and wound up separated from her on a wild goose chase, leaving her somewhat defenseless back in the hotel room. Well, not totally defenseless, she was still Skye. Well, she was until her water broke and she went into labor. 

She blew the hair out of her eyes from where she was crouched down low behind the bed. She had barricaded the door and stuck a device that Fitz had made to keep doors sealed shut to the jam. Her riffle lay on top of the bed in easy reach and her pistol was in her hand, resting on the bed. She lowered herself to the ground, putting her back against the wall and bracing her knees against the bed. She lowered the rifle to the floor beside her and chanced a glance out the window. He had left the hallway when he wasn’t able to knock down the door. She presumed he left to get more reinforcements or something to blow the door. She could see him on the street with half his body sticking out of a white van. She turned back around to face the door as another contraction seized her. 

“Skye, how are you doing?” Coulson’s voice came over the com in her ear.

“He’s on the street, trying to get something to open this door, or to climb in through the window or something, I would guess. Listen Coulson, I need to talk to May on a secure line, privately.” He knew that she was dealing with Ward, but he didn’t know anything else that was going on, nor was she going to tell him.  
“What do you need to talk to May about?” He asked harshly. 

“Phil.” Skye said quietly. She never used his name in public where others could hear, always professional. She heard silence, and then May came on over the link.

“I’m holding his earpiece in my left hand. What is going on Skye?” 

“May, I’m in labor. Don’t let him know. They are about eight minutes apart. I don’t know what Ward is up to, but he won’t take too much longer to get in here and hand-to-hand is pretty much out at this point.” Skye said and then grunted with the pain.

“Yeah, no kidding.” May tried to cover up her concern for the situation, but Skye could definitely hear it. “We aren’t that far away now, hopefully we can make it before he figures things out. See if you can stall him for a while if he finally gets through. Maybe he will be so surprised by recent events it will derail him long enough for us to arrive.” May tried to be practical. If Skye started shooting in the teeny tiny room, then Ward will start and she’d be a sitting duck.

“Actually, that might be the best idea, he’s never wanted to hurt me, maybe I can get him to want to help me.” Skye puzzled out.

“Just remember all the coms will be on and all of us will hear what you say.” May warned.

“Hopefully, Coulson will just think I’m playing him to gain sympathy.” 

“If you have anymore contractions that sound like the last one, he’s going to know your not faking for Ward.”

“It is what it is.” Skye sighed. “Hopefully you get here before Ward breaks in and he won’t find out over a com line, when he can’t do anything about it.” Skye heard movement in the hallway again. “I think he’s back, give Coulson back his earpiece. What’s your ETA?” Skye snapped back into operative mode. 

“15 to 20 minutes” May got out just as a banging noise sounded on the door. 

“Come on, Skye, let me in. Don’t make me do this the hard way.” Ward asked from the other side.

“No one but you is making you do this at all.” Skye replied sitting up on her knees and balancing her elbows on the bed to aim her gun at the door. “How do you know I won’t just shoot you through the door?”

“Because if you miss, you’ve just ruined the structural integrity of the door.” He reasoned back.

“How do you know I’ll miss?” There was a beat and then a sigh.

“We aren’t getting anywhere with this. You get two minutes. Consult with the team, whatever, but then I’m breaking this door down and I’m coming in.” 

“Did you catch all that?” Skye asked the com quietly.

“Yes.” Coulson answered. “We are now 10 to 12 minutes out.” She held her breath and then breathed through her nose as another contraction took over her abdomen.  
Once it passed, she thought over her situation. At the best, they would be almost five minutes away when he finally gets the door down, which means she would need to majorly stall. “See if you can figure out what he wants with you this time.” Coulson advised. 

“What are you planning on doing once you get in here? Going to kidnap me again? Gotta tell you, that’s getting old. I don’t even get excited anymore.” Skye taunted through the door.

“Oh, don’t worry Skye, I’m excited for the both of us.” Ward said darkly. Well, that’s comforting, Skye thought sarcastically. “Two minutes are up.” He announced.

“That didn’t feel like two minutes to me.” Skye shot back.

“And you said you weren’t excited…sounds like you’ve been counting the minutes till we see each other again.” He quipped. 

Skye heard equipment that sounded like a saw of some sort and then saw a blade go through the door. He just simply cut himself an opening and then made his way through. Skye kept her weapon trained on him. He was wearing a flak jacket and some sort of combat helmet. If she shot him, it wouldn’t kill him, at least not right away. She knew he was banking on her inability to shoot him, at least fatally. 

“Put the gun down Skye, or do we have to make this difficult?” He raised his gun up and aimed for her forehead, and Skye knew she couldn’t risk it, couldn’t chance that she’d be faster or more accurate. 

“Three minutes, Skye.” Coulson said softly in her ear. “We found a short cut.” Three minutes was still too long, she could already feel the familiar tightening of her abdomen muscles. 

“Ward, I’m pregnant. Please don’t shoot me.” Skye went for it. 

Ward lowered his gun a little and looked her in the eyes. Seeing honesty there, he motioned to her to stand up. “Stand up.” He commanded along with the gesture. 

She shook her head. “I can’t.” Her hands started to shake the gun in her hand as she tried to stop from reacting to the contractions. 

“Why not?” Ward asked, taking a step closer.

“Because I’m having a contraction and I am in labor and I can’t move right now.” She got it all out in one breath and then moaned through the pain. She heard Coulson gasp over the com and ask her if she was alright. She couldn’t talk right now. She felt this one all the way to her back and down her legs. Once it was over she saw that he had sat down across from her on the bed. He was still holding the gun, but relaxed, in his lap.

“So whose is it?” He asked.

“I’m surprised you don’t know, you’ve been watching me this long. It’s not a new development.” Skye said as she gasped for breath and managed to get back under control. 

“I’ve got to say, this is starting to make sense. Why you haven’t been in the field, why no one has seen you. It does put a crimp in the plans for today though.” He admitted.

“Don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthing no babies, Miz Scarlett?” Skye asked with venom.

“Nope.” He said cheerfully. “Hi, May.” He said to the agent who was sidling up to the door. 

“Ward, let us have her so we can take care of her. She needs medical attention, and we know you don’t want anything to happen to Skye.” 

Ward’s attention was diverted to May, so he missed the fact that Coulson had decided to go through the window, through the pane, grab Skye around the waist and then push off the bed, back out the window and to the side, where Bobbi and Fitz could pull them up to the roof. Skye turned in his arms so that she could hang on to his neck to make it a little easier for him to hold onto her for the entire journey to the roof. 

Halfway up, another contraction hit, and Skye bit his flak jacket at the shoulder, and squeezed him tightly. When it passed, they had landed on the roof and Coulson was trying to get her into a medical helicopter they had called for. 

“So the whole I’m in emergency labor thing, not a ploy against Ward.” He said as much as asked, as he climbed in behind her. She shook her head as the medic began strapping on monitors and taking down vitals. They went immediately up into the air and directly to the hospital.

_______________________________________

Skye was smiling. Her cheeks actually hurt from the constant smiling she was doing. Picture after picture after picture. She wondered how brides did this once, even multiple times. 

Jemma came running up to her carrying a two-year old James. “Here, lets get one with the whole family in it.” Jemma backed up and got out of the way just in time for Fitz to start up his relentless picture taking. 

Her smile was almost as big and bright as Phil’s. Almost.

She looked at him, dressed up in a tux, smiling at her, even as the camera kept flashing.

“I’m pregnant again.”

She didn’t think his smile could get any wider. She was wrong.


End file.
